In the United States and around the world there are a large number of people that are living longer than previous generations. This is leading to a growing number of aging citizens that require medication. Most require multiple medications taken at different intervals. Some elderly people find it difficult to remember to take their medication or are sometimes confused by prescription directions.
Various tools exist to help people cope with the burden of taking medication. Existing devices provide audible beeps or messages to alert an individual that it is time to take their medication. Some of these devices can be programmed with complex scheduling information. Some devices are meant for a single pill bottle while others have multiple compartments for different medication and can be programmed for a plurality of medication and scheduling.
The existing technology has several shortcomings: first, existing devices require programming by the user, which is often problematic since many are elderly; second, the devices are not aware of the specific medication in a bottle unless the user programs this information into the device; third, existing devices have no way of measuring the amount of pills within a bottle in order to verify compliance with a prescription.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and apparatus that can interact directly with a pill bottle to extract information regarding a prescription associated with the pill bottle, and that can use said information to create a schedule for taking those pills. There is also a need for a device that can monitor the removal of every pill from said pill bottle to track compliance with said prescription. There is also a need for a device that can determine negative drug interactions between multiple medications and generate alerts for a user.